AMD Duron 750

Final Words

For the first time since the introduction of Intel's Celeron, AMD has a value segment processor that can not only outperform the Celeron across the board but is also shipping at higher clock frequencies. This is a very big win for AMD, not only does Intel have to concentrate on regaining control of the lost ground their Pentium III was unable to hang on to they also have to worry about competing with a very powerful chip that is currently carrying a two digit price tag.

The Celeron will be getting an upgrade to the 100MHz FSB sometime next year, but until then, even a 1GHz Celeron will barely outperform a 800MHz Duron, not to mention the difficulty it would have matching a 1GHz Duron in performance.

In spite of this, the Duron still has problems making its way into systems. For AnandTech readers, building a Duron system isn't a problem at all. You find a place to purchase the processor and pick a vendor to get your motherboard from and you're already half way there. For OEMs and system integrators however, the process isn't that easy.

While we may not like the i810E chipset, it has sold quite a few Celeron processors simply because it is a cost effective motherboard platform that features integrated audio and video.

With a CPU as cheap as the Duron, it is almost silly to expect that a manufacturer would stick a Duron in a motherboard that costs twice as much as the CPU unless that board had some serious levels of integration. VIA's KT133 chipset with integrated video, the KM133, is long overdue and every day that goes by without motherboards based on the chipset is another day that the Duron suffers from the lack of a home. Whether it is ALi, SiS or VIA someone needs to release a low-cost chipset for the Duron and it needs to happen soon.

Until then, the Duron is still a very viable option for individual users that would rather not be stuck with integrated graphics and audio.

When it comes to productivity, office and content creation applications, the Duron is around 10% slower than the Thunderbird and 5% slower than the older K75 Athlons on a clock for clock basis.

For gamers, a Duron will leave you with around 85 - 90% of the performance of a Thunderbird, and as long as you have a powerful enough video card you shouldn't find yourself in a situation where your gaming performance is suffering at all.

In the high-end arena, depending on the applications you're using, the Duron can offer performance equal to that of a Thunderbird (because of the fact that they share the same core as well as the same bandwidth friendly EV6 bus) while in other situations the performance difference can be much more noticeable.

In the arena that the Duron was originally intended to compete in, the value segment, the Duron does a wonderful job, there's no question about that. It's because it does such a wonderful job that it is forced to comparisons with its more expensive brothers. But isn't that how it always is when you're the youngest in a family?